The Promise

The breeze toyed playfully with His hair

Tugging wistfully at His robe

At the tread of His sandals

The earth sighed with inexpressible hope

Sunlight wrapped joyfully around His frame

And danced with delight on His face

Waves stumbled softly one over another

In gleeful contest to caress His feet

Wind and storm bowed willingly

And ceased

While every creature small and great

Lifted weary heads to inhale

A forgotten fragrance….

God walking again among men

 

 And as for Him

What was it like to stride on earth’s bleeding soil

Among this fallen race?

To gaze upward through sky consumed by cloud

And taste the rain in His mouth?

To lift a handful of silver sand

And watch it tumble grain by grain earthward

Between His fingers

To feel the rustic fibre of timber boat beneath his feet

To breathe in the aroma of oven baked bread

Or savour the sweetness of new made wine?

Did He linger on the mountain top

Silently surveying this realm of man and beast

Remembering too well

How it was in the beginning?

 

And did His creation weep

In anguished heartache

As men nailed Him to the tree

Cruelly fashioning even His own handiwork

Into His execution stake?

Did it hide itself in fear and disbelief

Silently absorbing the trauma

And the grief

Dying yet again to hope

Only to retreat

To watch again in wordless agony

The desperate unfolding

Of mankind’s bitter story?

 

Do you feel its anxious yearning

This watching waiting creation?

Somehow sensing  the nearness of that dreamlike dawn

When finally will that consummate step be felt

Upon earth’s tear stained face

And the voice of a multitude of new born adams

Resound throughout the nations

Shall the mountains and the hills bow down in awe

And the trees clap their hands at the promised revelation

Shall sun and moon rejoice at their greater light

These children of God

Each one in His image, bearing His likeness

Endowed with His authority

To love, to nurture and to heal

As it was in the beginning

 

Do you feel the heartbeat of the earth

And all its creatures

Pulsating with one burning question:

Lord, how long?

For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope  that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 

Romans 8:19-21 NKJV

 ©  Photo and Poem Copyright Cheryl McGrath, Bread for the Bride, 2013   Permission is granted to freely reproduce any Bread for the Bride articles in emails or internet blogs, unaltered, and providing this copyright notice is included.     To permanently display an article on any static website please contact me for permission.